German Aircraft Names in WW2

Was Hornisse not the name for both the 210 & 410? I seem to recall that it was

The name “Taifun” for the Bf 108 was given by Elly Beinhorn and the Messerschmitt AG.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elly_Beinhorn

Bf110 – Zerstorer.

I always thought that the ‘Zerstorer’ name was a generic one for heavy two or three seat fighters (In the same manner that ‘Stuka’ applied to all dive bombers, despite only being immediately associated with the JU-87) – and applied to JU-88s, Me410 etc, (and was even used by the Luftwaffe to describe Blenheims, Defiants and Beaufighters)

Actually there weren’t many german aircraft, that got official names.
The Bf 109, 110, Fw 190 Ju 88/188 never got official names and not even
nicknames, “Emil”, “Fritz” and “Gustav” are just the phonetic letters, as
YakRider wrote.
Civil aircraft had more often names given by the manufacturer or largest
user and those were mostly kept in military service : Fw 200 Condor,
Bücker Bü 131 Jungmann, Bü 133 Jungmeister, Bf 108 Taifun.
Nicknames were more frequent and sometimes stuck to the aircraft,
like “Moskito” for the Ta 154, “Tausenfüßler” for the Ar 232, “Fliegender
Holzschuh” for the Bv 138. Even “Schwalbe” nd “Sturmvogel” were inofficial
names only.
And to my opinion those names for the Fw 190 like “Würger”, “Schlächter”,
or “Rächer” vor the Ju 188 are post-war “inventions” !

Wasn’t the Fw-190 called the ‘Shrike’ or ‘Butcher Bird?’-I know it was called that, but don’t know whether it was a nickname or official

Focke Wulf’s Weihe und Stosser

im sure there are a few others iv come across over the years, some noted to hand are …

Fieseler Fi.156 Storch (Stork)
Horten Ho.IX/Gotha Go.229 Fledermaus (Bat)
Focke Wulf Ta. P.VIII Flitzer (Madcap)
Heinkel He.162 Spatz (Sparrow)
Arado Ar.234 Blitz (Lightning)
Bachem Ba.349 Natter (Viper)
Focke Wulf Ta.183 Huckbein (Raven)
Focke Wulf 187 Falke (Falcon)
Messerschmitt Me.410 Hornisse (Hornet)

cheers, Joe

There’s quite a few of these I haven’t heard the names of before. Keep them coming.

I’ve found these over the years (nicknames rather than official names)…

Die Fliegender Holzschuh – BV-138 ‘Flying Clog’

Volksjäger He-162 ‘Peoples Fighter’

Tausendfüssler – Ar-232 ‘Centipede’

Tante Ju – Ju-52/3m ‘Auntie Junkers’

Sturmvogel – Me 262 ‘Stormbird’

Vater und Sohn – Mistel combination ‘Father & son’

Ken

As for the question about who coined the names, “Tante Ju” is definitely a nickname, meaning “Aunt Ju”. And I read in an aviation magazine very recently that the name Jungmann was chosen by the designer, it being his naval rank at one point. My guess is the Buecker names at least were given by the manufacturer.

And the Melody…. ME110D1 !! 😀

Dora, Emil, Friedrich and Gustav are the German phonetic letters for D, E, F and G – like Delta, Echo, Foxtrot and Golf nowadays. In this case they refer to different marks of aircraft, so a Bf 109E was known as the Emil.

Bf110 – Zerstorer.

Bf110 D-1.R-1 – Dackelbauch.

Fw Stieglitz.

Arado AR234 Blitz.

Bachem Ba349 Natter.

Heinkel He 162 Volksjager.

Junkers Ju 188 Racher.

Fiesler Fi 156 Storch.

Blohm und Voss BV222 Wiking.

Junkers Ju52 Tante Ju.

Weren’t the Bucker series of trainers named? Jungmann, Bestmann and Jungmeister spring to mind. As does the Weihe which IIRC was some kind of Focke Wulf trainer?

Wasn’t one model of 190 named the Wurger?

Last one I can think of was the projected long range bomber Amerika.

Edited to add the Flettner Kolibri helicopter and the Bachstelze which was an unpowered helicopter/gyrocopter(?) which was towed along behind a submarine.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

kev35

I’ve heard of the He III being called ‘fat albert’ but I don’t think this was from the RLM, rather the aircrew.

Me-410 Hornise = Hornet
Me-363 Gigant = Giant
Me-262 Schwalb = Swallow
He219 Uhu = Owl

Thanks for the replies so far.

Forgot this one – Heinkel He 177 Greif (Griffin)

Bf108 = Taifun (Typhoon)
Me163 = Komet (Comet)
Me262 = Sturmvogel or Schwalbe (Stormbird/Swallow)
Do335 = Pfeil (Arrow)

I think the Luftwaffe version of the Fw200 should actually be called the Kurier, ‘Condor’ was the civilian version but the name stuck.

It’s not something I know much about, but here’s my two penneth!

I always assumed that any names used were rather loosely applied, and had general meanings and thus not official ministry/RLM use. ie Stuka is short for Sturzkampfflugzeug, or dive bomber, so it would unlikely to be officially named the Junkers Divebomber.
There are also what I assume to be German sounding names applied by the allies to certain common versions of German aircraft, such as Emil and Dora. Are these early examples of the later NATO reporting names?

Moskito I always took to be very loosely applied after the appearance of our own Mosquito, being a generalism on the two engine, wood structure, attack aircraft theme.
Having said that, Focke Wulf in particular did seem to apply names to its aircraft.

It is probably a subject that is much deeper than it first appears!

Going through some old photos for my Pre-digital photos thread, I came across one of the Ju87 Stuka at Hendon. The next picture was a Ju88, and it struck me that unlike the Ju87 Stuka, Fw200 Condor and Ta154 Moskito, I’d never heard of that referred to by a name.

So what German aircraft had names and which were just numbers, and was this down to the aircraft manufacturer/designer or German Air Ministry?

According to JU88.net, the Ju88 was referred to as ‘Dreifinger’ which translates as ‘Three-finger’. Whether this was just an informal appellation or not, I have no idea.